Good Charlotte have announced that they are to take an indefinite hiatus from the music business as a band.

The 'Girls & Boys' group have revealed that they plan to "step away from the grind" for the foreseeable future.

Guitarist Benji Madden told Rolling Stone: "We're stepping away from the grind of making records and touring for a minute, just to have fun and be creative like we were when we were 15."

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Benji will release a new free mix-tape titled Before The Fame: The Madden Brothers with his brother Joel Madden in the US on October 1.

Joel said: "We're already having a blast in our studio with all these new artists making music just for fun.

"And the mix tape's free - they're going to get it for free, there's no quota we're trying to fill, there's no machine we're trying to fuel, we just want to make music with new artists and god bless EMI, they let us do what we want."